A passenger in a semi was injured during a rollover accident Monday evening, in Pottawattamie County. The Iowa State Patrol reports 32-year old Daniel Therrier, of Montreal, Quebec, who was not wearing a seat belt, was transported by Underwood Rescue to Mercy Hospital in Council Bluffs. The accident happened at around 8:25-p.m. on Interstate 80, near mile marker 14.

The Patrol says a 2015 Volvo semi driven by a 37-year old man from St. Laurent, Quebec, was westbound on I-80 when the rig drifted to the right and left the road. The driver tried to maneuver the semi back onto the road, but the vehicle rolled onto its passenger side.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – The Des Moines mayor says full-time workers for the city deserve a minimum wage of $15 an hour. The Des Moines Register reports Mayor Frank Cownie and the City Council told city staffers Monday to evaluate city job descriptions and functions in developing an ordinance that would guarantee a livable wage. City officials will be reviewing labor contracts as part of the process.

City personnel director James Wells says only a few full-time city positions offer a starting salary range below $15 an hour. Iowa’s state minimum wage is $7.25. Johnson County has been raising its minimum wage for all employers and will top out at $10.10 an hour on Jan. 1. Polk County and Linn County supervisors are expected to consider local wage hikes this fall.

Iowa veterans are being encouraged to take part in a national voluntary research program on veterans who get their care in the Veterans Administration Healthcare System. Iowa Department of Veterans Affairs executive director, Robert King, says it’s called the Million Veteran Program. “It was initiated by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs in 2012 to gain a database of genetics looking at military exposure, an individual’s lifestyle and various health information so that they can do studies,” King explains.

He says the studies are an important part of helping veterans. “They’d like to be able to use the study information to determine some of the health programs in the future. See how genes affect such things as the development of P-T-S-D in combat exposed veterans,” King says. “There’s another study that has to do with the influence on the development of Gulf War Illness for those Gulf War era people. There’s another one that has to due with examining the genetic risk factors for the chronic use of alcohol, tobacco and opiates.”

He says they are seeking Iowa veterans to take part to help them reach their sign up goal. “The program has been going since 2012 and they have enrolled about 500-thousand people as of two months ago. They’d like to get to one million,” King says. The V-A in Iowa City is one of the 60 centers where veterans can take part. He says Iowa City was chosen as one of the locations because it is one of the top ten research locations in the U-S in the V-A research program. King says you need to make an appointment to come in and take part in the research.

“It only takes about 20 minutes as I understand it, they fill out some surveys about health and health related behaviors, provide a blood sample,” according to King. If you are a user of the V-A health care system, you can enroll by calling toll-free 1-866-441-6075 to schedule your appointment.

(Radio Iowa)

Indiana Governor Mike Pence — the Republican Party’s vice presidential nominee — spoke to a crowd of about four-hundred in Sioux City late (Monday) afternoon. Pence touted the tax plan Donald Trump rolled out in Detroit Monday morning. “To streamline deductions, to lower taxes across the board, to lower marginal income tax rates, reduce income taxes dramatically, make child care fully deductible and end death taxes once and for all for every American,” Pence said, to cheers.

Trump’s economic plan calls for lowering the corporate tax rate to 15 percent, something Pence emphasized in his Sioux City appearance. “So that businesses large and small, start-up businesses can compete here in Iowa, compete here in America and compete with the world,” Pence said. Pence established a moratorium on new state regulations in Indiana when he became that state’s governor in 2013 and Pence says Trump will do the same at the federal level.

“When he becomes president on day one he will sign a moratorium on new federal red tape and work to roll back the EPA’s Clean Power Plan, the Waters of the United States rule and end the ‘war on coal’ once and for all,” Pence said, to applause. Pence promises that Trump will invite Trans Canada to reapply for permits to build the X-L Pipeline.

Pence also campaigned last (Monday) night in Council Bluffs. Pence served six terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. He’s been governor of Indiana since early 2013. Pence withdrew his bid for reelection as governor when he became Trump’s running mate. Hillary Clinton is scheduled to be in Des Moines Wednesday, to discuss her economic plan.

(Radio Iowa)